Arabian
Sandsby Wilfred Thesiger
Thesiger greatly illuminates our understanding of the nomadic bedouins
of Arabia. He loved, admired, respected and was humbled by a people who
lived desparately hard lives in the harshest conditions with only a few
possessions that might include saddles, ropes, bowls, goatskins, rifles
and daggers and traveled days without food and water. Amazon.comPaperback Reprint edition (March 1985)Viking Press; ISBN: 0140095144

Desert
Queen : The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell : Adventurer, Advisor to
Kings, Ally of Lawrence of ArabiaJanet Wallach
A biography of the woman who, indirectly, was the catalyst for many
of the troubles in the Middle East, including the Gulf War. In 1918, Gertrude
Bell drew the region's proposed boundaries on a piece of tracing paper.
Her qualifications for doing so were her extensive travel, her fluency
in both Persian and Arabic, and her relationships with sheiks and tribal
and religious leaders. She also possessed an ability to understand the
subtle and indirect politeness of the culture, something many of her colonialist
comrades were oblivious to. As a self-made statesman her sex was an asset,
enabling her to bypass the ladder of protocol and dive into the business
of building an Empire. Amazon.comPaperback - 419 pages (July 20, )Anchor Books; ISBN: 0385495757